In a city, a city more ancient than the seven mountains, there lived a woman. They called her "Deborah."
Her name wasn't really Deborah. It was a name passed down to generations upon generations of women. These women judged the port city known to many as Sodom.
Every week on Sunday, the people of Sodom came to be judged by Deborah. Today was Sunday—a day of rest, and a time to be judged.
Deborah sat beneath a large palm tree. The shade did little to give relief to her, while she judged the people of Sodom. The sun shone on the beach where she judged the people, on her mat made of straw, and her red shawl that draped over her shoulders. She wore a white robe—tied together with a strong rope the size of a good belt.
She was thirty-five, and had judged the people of Sodom for twenty years since she had come of age as a fifteen year old. She was the wife to a man named Lappidoth. She married him when she was fourteen, and he was fifteen.
Lappidoth was delivering food to Deborah, while she was sitting, and she took a break to eat and talk to Lappidoth.
The line didn't go away. They waited like usual to be judged by Deborah. The line extended for a half kilometer, from the gate of Sodom to the palm tree.
"How are you?" Lappidoth said.
"Fine," said Deborah, "And the children?"
"Rachel is watching them."
Deborah scratches her head and reclined against the palm to say, "Does that daughter of mine still not want to be married?"
"She'll come around," Lappidoth said with a faint sigh.
"She can't keep neglecting her duty. Once I die, she will become judge. She will become Deborah, and Deborah must be married."
"Why can't one of our other daughters become Deborah?"
"Tradition. The oldest becomes Deborah, and she must have a daughter of her own to carry out the bloodline."
"I know all this, but why must you insist it be her. She is a free girl, if I ever saw one. She might not be suited for marriage."
"I was once like her," said Deborah, "But all must follow the law of the Supreme Fairy."
"Again with the Supreme Fairy... You can't even prove it exists, let alone grant wishes. Seriously, a being that floats down from above the sky and destroys demons? Ludicrous! The wind pillars are random, chance, a scientific phenomenon where lightning scorched the earth and wind rips the surroundings asunder. You can't prove anything!"
Before Deborah could respond, two merchants at the front of the line jumped into the conversation.
One merchant had a long white beard, and the second merchant had a long grey beard. The two elderly gentlemen stood before Deborah, and they entered the conversation without asking.
The merchant with the grey beard said, "I must say. Your relationship as husband and wife is better than expected."
"Say what you really mean," Lappidoth said, "I hate people who say two things with the same words."
"Then do you hate me?" Deborah said.
"I don't hate you," Lappidoth said, "I tolerate it from you, but anyone else shouldn't say things like that before me, if they have any sense."
"See!" said the merchant with the grey beard, "He talks to his wife as an equal! I told you he was half a man, Uruk."
Now the man with the white beard, whose name was Uruk, said, "I must say. I didn't believe you when you first told me, but the rumors are true. He is half a man if I ever saw one."
Lappidoth was about to strike the man with the grey beard when Deborah stood between the two.
Lappidoth held his fist in the air, while his brows shook with anger: he saw the look in Deborah's eyes, and realized that she would handle it, as the Judge of Sodom. He lowered his fist and sighed and gathered his things that he brought to feed Deborah.
He said, "Don't go too easy on them."
"Don't worry," she said with a smile.
So, Lappidoth left the beach and walked to their home at the edge of the city.
Deborah stood and said, "Now, tell me your names. One of you is called Uruk, but what of the other?"
"My name is Kish," said the man with the grey beard, and you have rightly apprehended that the man beside me is Uruk."
Deborah opened the palms of her hands and said, "Now tell me your case, and May I be just under the sight of the Supreme Fairy."
"Our case is such," said Kish, "Uruk and I were traveling together in a caravan, to better protect our wares, if you must know, and we happened upon the body of a young Blackcloth. His bones were broken, and he was on the cusp of death: being the Good Samaritans we are, we saved him."
"Yes," said Uruk, as he made grand gestures, "We saved him, and I suggested that since we were already in the way, we should visit you, the female judge, to let you decide."
"Decide what?" Deborah said.
"Why of course," Kish said, "It may not be obvious to a female with little knowledge of the heights of commerce, but we decided to give you the opportunity to decide once and for all, who gets to sell the Blackcloth."
"Sell?" she said, "But you don't own him. Not really."
"We might as well own him," said Uruk, "We saved and fed and brought my him in one piece to Sodom to sell him to a new master. Who knows when he ran away from his former master? And is it not our duty as good citizens of the plains to make property useful?"
"Yes, it might not have occurred to you, but we did a deed of good merit, and deserve to be rewarded..." said Kish with a deep voice that trailed off as he lost his focus while admiring the ocean before him to the left of Deborah. He wasn't even looking at her by this point of the conversation, if you could really call it that.
Conversations required respect in this world; otherwise, the discourse was no more than talking at people.
"Bring the Blackcloth to me that I may see him for myself."
"Is that really necessary?" Kish said.
"Do wish to here my verdict or not?"
"We came all the way here, so we might as well listen," said Uruk.
"Yes, yes. Slave fetch me Blackcloth!"
"Yes, master," said a tall woman in simple attire.
And soon, the Blackcloth was brought before Deborah.
He had bruises on his face, and a black eye. His blue blood stained his Blackcloth, and she realized.
"Did you injure him after saving him?"
"Listen, woman," said Kish, "And listen closely. This Blackcloth... wouldn't tell us his slave name. He only gave us a lie. He said, 'Leo Lionsmane.'"
"And what's wrong with that?" she said.
"Why he's a Blackcloth for goodness sake. He doesn't have a real name anymore—let alone the name Lionsmane. That's a Duke's surname. And if the Seven Mountains of all places! Does he not know where he is? The seven plains! They are our enemies. How ignorant!? How stupid! How-"
Deborah interrupted his monologue.
She said to the people waiting to be judged these words: "I hereby decree that Leo Lionsmane will be under the supervision of the house of Deborah! I need two men to carry him to my house!"
"You wench!" Said Uruk, and Kish was stunned; but very quickly he became angry and said to the mercenaries he hired as guards, "Kill this wench and anyone who helps he Blackcloth!"
But to his surprise, the mercenaries didn't help him. They looked at the two merchants with cold eyes filled with disdain.
A large, muscular man with a giant great sword on his back and strong eyes and firm hands crossed his arms and said, "I'm sorry, but that's not in the contract."
"You! The lot of you! You'll rue this day! I'll have the heads of everyone in this city. Your women will become my slaves, and your men will be castrated then killed. Your children, I curse for a thousand generations!" said Kish, "You have no idea who you wretches are crossing right now! We are no mere merchants! We are Lords! I, a high official of the King of Kish! Do you think anyone can be called Kish!?"
"And I am the commerce adviser of Uruk. Gilgamesh himself dubbed me Uruk, for all the riches I gain for him. Do you really think our Kings won't come and wipe out a small city like you?"
Deborah raised her hands to the heavens and said, "By the voice of the Supreme Fairy, I decree, 'Kish shall fall to Uruk, and Gilgamesh shall wage war for the rest of his life until death!' Thus says the Supreme Fairy!"
The merchants left after seeing the hostility of the people and the mercenaries.
Kish said to the mercenaries, "Don't bother with your payment! You're fired!"
"We don't need it," said the large man.
"Humph," Said Kish, while Uruk followed spewing vulgarities at Deborah and the people. Kish and Uruk brought their slaves to their respective caravans and departed from Sodom.
And the men of Sodom did as Deborah asked. They carried Leo to Deborah's house, while Deborah continued to judge the people of Sodom.